Firefighters battling large blaze at Northern Metal site in Minneapolis
A large plume of black smoke is rising into the Twin Cities sky on Wednesday afternoon from a fire at the Northern Metal recycling plant in north Minneapolis.
According to Minneapolis Fire Department, it is a "large outside rubbish/scrap metal fire" on the 2800 block of Pacific Street, which is the address of Northern Metal, which is owned by the EMR Group.
Firefighters "have lines laid to extinguish fire," the department announced at 1:41 p.m.
Northern Metal Recycling has been involved in two significant fires in recent years, including the February 2020 blaze that burned for days at the company's recycling facility in Becker.
The Becker fire was so intense that it sent a plume of smoke into the air large enough to be seen by satellite, as shown here by the NOAA.
The Minneapolis recycling center was also the scene of a major fire in December 2016.
The Twin Cities saw another scrap metal/recycling fire at the home of Metro Metals Recycling in St. Paul last August.
This is a developing story.